OAS - 'Democracy is not imposed. It is born from dialogue'
Yahoo-AFP: OAS closing statement omits US proposal to strengthen democracy
The 34-member Organization of American States omitted a US proposal on strengthening democracy in Latin America from the closing statement of its three-day summit.
The unanimously approved statement instead tasked OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza to draw up proposals to "address situations" likely to compromise the "democratic political process or the rule of law" in the region.
Insulza's proposals, the statement added, must abide by the OAS charter which enshrines the "principle of non-intervention and the right to self determination."
The US proposal, put forward at the summit by Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice - who headed the meeting - had raised hackles among OAS members, especially Venezuela, whose Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez said the OAS was "not authorized to make evaluations on the state of democracy in the different countries."
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told Rice at the summit: "Madam president, democracy is not imposed. It is born from dialogue." Read more
The 34-member Organization of American States omitted a US proposal on strengthening democracy in Latin America from the closing statement of its three-day summit.
The unanimously approved statement instead tasked OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza to draw up proposals to "address situations" likely to compromise the "democratic political process or the rule of law" in the region.
Insulza's proposals, the statement added, must abide by the OAS charter which enshrines the "principle of non-intervention and the right to self determination."
The US proposal, put forward at the summit by Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice - who headed the meeting - had raised hackles among OAS members, especially Venezuela, whose Foreign Minister Ali Rodriguez said the OAS was "not authorized to make evaluations on the state of democracy in the different countries."
Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told Rice at the summit: "Madam president, democracy is not imposed. It is born from dialogue." Read more
posted by exoplanet at 10:21 AM
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